President of Nigeria: “This is not racism. Nigerians have a bad reputation in Europe. It’s their fault. They commit too many crimes. They must stay in Nigeria.”

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari said of his countrymen in the British Telegraph newspaper: “Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but then again some Nigerians have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in different prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking.

I don’t think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home. Their services are required to rebuild the country. If their countrymen misbehaved, the best thing for them is to stay at home and encourage the credibility of the nation.”

“We will encourage our countrymen to stay at home, work hard and make a respectable living at home,” he continued.
A recent statistic published by the Lagos-based newspaper Vanguard shows that about 170,000 Nigerians are currently in prison abroad. “Most are in jail for drug and human trafficking, and for various immigration crimes,” the President explained.

“We are saddened when we see our young people crossing the desert, arriving in Libya, and crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe,” Buhari said.

“We consider that this is something that must stop as soon as possible, because it is not good for Europe. We think that if we reorganize our agriculture better, many of these young people will earn a decent living at home rather than becoming a problem for their host country and for us here in Africa. ‘Let’s help them at home’ could be the slogan of the Nigerian government.”

This, along with the new Nigerian immigration regulations that were passed in 2017, are attempting to put an end to the phenomenon.